The Lynch List, 7-Jun-2010

Here’s today’s required reading:

First: I’ve been saying for a long time that I hope the Peterborough diocese does not come to anything resembling a mediated settlement over the Jim Corcoran case. Such an outcome has several ramifications:

1) The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal now claims that their system works, and therefore anybody with a grievance with any Church doctrine or belief can use the CHRT as a negotiating tool to bend them to their will.

2) The OHRT also dodges a bullet by not having to decide whether they have jurisdiction over the church or not. This way, it stays ambiguous enough to encourage more complaints without having anything on paper to challenge in a real court.

3) Those who oppose the church claim victory and the ability to make the church say whatever they want (Google it, I won’t link to it):

It seems too bad that it takes a Human Rights Tribunal to get the Catholic church onside with preaching tolerance and equality…

4) Any efforts by the church to reconcile the matter will have the unshakable odor of coercion – is he preaching this because he was forced to by some sort of settlement agreement?

Second: This woman would be a shoe-in for the next opening at the CHRC. What to do about the problem of online incivility in comment sections? Censor them!

When readers write print letters to magazines or newspapers, they are generally curated and edited before publication. Why should online posts be any different?

Third: Though you’ve heard it before, it bears repeating. It’s astounding how much Ayn Rand has predicted in the 50’s the legal thought process of today’s Human Rights Commissions. Basically, acquire absolute power by making laws that ban everything, but retain the arbitrary right to grant exemptions to that law.

Fourth: Jennifer Lynch’s CHRC is going to examine the feasibility of the current policy whereby a lump-sum payment intended to help the families of soldiers killed in action transition from military to civilian life. It may discriminate on the basis of “family status” and therefore contravene the code. I mean, who has the decency to start a squabble over this sort of thing?

Fifth: The Ottawa Citizen supplies an interesting run-down of the OHRC’s business for the last year.

Evolution

Like virtually all other virtual things, The Lynch Mob is a not a static object. In fact, one of the earliest things to change was the name itself. This site started out as The Lynch Files - a couple of days later it was called The Lynch Mob. Same blog, different name. During a sabbatical taken by founder Walker Morrow, others stepped up to keep the blog running and continue to hold the feet of CHRC commissioner Jennifer Lynch - and all her provincial counterparts - to the fire.